


Life is a Parody

by HideInMyShadow



Series: Prompt Fills [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Just a bit of fun, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt, Writing Exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-06 07:09:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12206355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HideInMyShadow/pseuds/HideInMyShadow
Summary: Anon- Prompt: Steven Universe Watches Steven Universe.





	Life is a Parody

**Author's Note:**

> Anon- Prompt: Steven Universe Watches Steven Universe.
> 
> Thanks for the suggestion! I had to think a bit about this one.
> 
> Not sure if this is a discussion prompt or writing prompt but I’m gonna take it as writing. This is gonna be weird and tweaked a little for fun- but here we go!

It was Connie that had discovered it first. She had rushed off from the school library to text Steven a whole flurry of questions that confused the half gem to no end. Why would a kids tv show in Europe concern Steven? He loved cartoons but he couldn’t see why this one had his friend pestering him for information about it when he’d never even heard of it before?  
However his confusion had only lead to Connie insisting that he watch the show as soon as possible and that she couldn’t explain until he had watched it himself.

It soon became very apparent why Connie had been so eager for Steven to watch it.

 _“Keven Nova”_ was a sci-fi fantasy kids show that had been steadily gaining popularity not only in Europe but in the US and Asia as well. The main protagonist that the show was named after had a purple jewel on his chest that gave him supernatural powers inherited from his mother, who was once the mystic healer of an ancient group of heroes pledged to protect earth, each adventure lasting only about eight minutes to be shown between other shows.  
Steven had laughed at the description at first, blushing a little at the thought that Connie must have seen the few similarities between this popular show and his own life. It was neat but not something to get worked up about- gems and jewels were different after all and the characters only had one or two features that resembled the Crystal gems; it was likely that someone had come across a few relics and folk tales that inspired them to create the series. That seemed plausible.

After binging the first series he was no longer so sure about that.

“This…this is my life. This all really happened!“ Steven stared at the screen, fingers trailing through his hair as he tried not to freak out.

“Maybe it’s all just a really weird coincidence? Ronaldo blogs about the gems all the time- maybe someone got an idea from him?“

Latching on to the idea Steven quickly typed the show into Connie;s laptop, hoping to learn more about the shows origin and brush aside the strange déjà vu  that came with it. No such luck. All the online forums and wiki’s about the show only revealed more similarities between the cartoon characters and his own friends and family, some even going into the background of events that he hadn’t witnessed himself at the time that filled in a few gaps in his real life. The origin and inspiration for the entire series seemed to come from a self-made writing blog that had become very popular and gained a large following in a very short period of time, fans of the blog petitioning and writing to several publishing, filming and animation studios just to see the stories posted there brought to life.

Scrolling through the site Steven could see why the stories might attract an audience online- it had the right mix of magic, sci-fi, conspiracies and drama that people loved to get wrapped up in. If it wasn’t for how much the writer seemed to have invaded his privacy and spied on his friends, he might have been a little humbled. There was no clear name for the creator of the blog, or possibly creators? Each post was either signed with a P or a B, sometimes both or with bracketed notes from B, P being the main source of a majority of content. They also seemed to be confused with the amount of fuss around their stories. He read through the first stories and squinted at the first few doodles posted, feeling a niggling suspicion that something was very…off about it.

Other than the change of names and a few details, many of the characteristic of him and his friends had been exaggerated or misinterpreted at points and the whole story seemed to start in two different places at once, both long after Steven had first began to control his abilities. Yet despite the variation of view point and the inaccuracy of some evens, ‘Kevin’ was still placed as the centre of attention. Leaning back from the screen, Steven rubbed his eyes with a heavy sigh, trying to think why all these little differences seemed to matter so much.

Who ever wrote this had known them for a while but didn’t seem to know them well enough to make a perfect representation of their personalities. He couldn’t think of many people who knew some of the more frightening secret parts of his life….Who would have wrote all of this and posted it on the-

Then he spotted the tiny icon image on the writers website. A green triangle with large beady black eyes and a catlike mouth. He grabbed the screen in disbelief as the answer came to him, eyebrows furrowed in annoyance and exasperation.

“Peeeeeeeeeeeerriiii-“

* * *

**“-iiiiiidooooooooooot!“**

The small green gem blinked, scrambling over the edge of their DIY balcony to grin down at the young half-gem striding towards them, taking no note of the stiff frown on his face.

“Oh! Hi Steven! You’re just in time- me and Lapis were just about to-“

Peridot yelped as Steven jumped up to the balcony, floating up and quickly landing right in front of her to shove a printed poster advertising the latest series of ‘Kevin Nova’.

“What is this?!“ He cried not lowering his voice at all, entirely to frustrated to even attempt to be calm.

Peridot raised a questioning eyebrow at the poster, searching Stevens face for a moment as if trying to piece together what exactly Steven wanted in response to his odd question.

“Uhhh it’s a piece of paper celebrating a series of unimportant moving morps that are used to sate tiny humans and cause older humans to cry?“

Steven sighed, shoulders slumping a little as he lowered the poster and rubbed his aching forehead.

“I mean, why is your signature on a poster for a show about my life?!“

“Huh?“

Peridot took the poster from the boy, brows furrowing as she inspected it.

“It does seem….familiar.“

Having heard the commotion, Lapis glided up from inside the barn, giving Steven a bland but curious wave as she landed.

“What’s familiar?“

Peridot lifted up the paper for Lapis to see, the taller gem staring at it for a few moments without reaction before turning her gaze to the green gem.

“Is this is what those weird guys in uncomfortable uniforms were talking about?“

“They’re called ‘suits-shirts’-” Peridot began correcting but suddenly seemed to light up with realisation. “Wait- that’s it! My ‘stress’ blog stuff.“

Steven more lost than ever and beginning to dread the origin of this cartoon already glanced between the two.

“Stress blog?“

The small gem smiled widely if a little nervous, rubbing one hand behind her neck as she started to explain.

“Yeah, I got the idea when reading through some of those books Connie gave to Lapis- y’know after the whole uh feelings thing? It suggested that writing and talking about stuff that has happened in the past as if it were a story can help you understand it better and that putting these things on a website for people to read ‘vents frustration’. So I set up a website for me and Lapis write about the things that happened. Once we started including a few morps to go along with it lot’s of people started talking about it. Then a bunch of humans in ‘suit-shirts’ started offering us these paper slips to use it for something.“

Lapis nodded along with the story, a small frown appearing at the mention of the odd humans.

“It was really weird. They seemed pretty happy when we said we didn’t want those slips though. They even agreed not to bother us about it again if we wrote our names on some things.“

“I don’t get it though. What purpose does it do to document our lives for small humans?“

Steven watched the two gems debate on what the purpose of their unintentional creation was with no clue how to feel. They clearly had no clue how unusual it was to document someone elses life online for a bunch of strangers to read.  
Actually, now that he thought about it, wasn’t their blog supposed to be about their own experiences? Why had he ended up the ‘main character’?

“Um guys?“

Immediately the gems snapped their attention back to him.

“Yes Steven?“

“Why are all your stories…about me?“

Lapis shuffled uncomfortably for a moment looking away while Peridot fiddles with the corner of the poster.

“We just-…The book said that you should talk about these things as if from the view of someone…”

Surprisingly, though quiet and still looking away it was Lapis that finished Peridot’s awkward statement.

“It said to pretend to be someone that cared about you. Even when you did something wrong…“

It took a moment for Steven to absorb the implication of their confession before quickly wrapping them both in a hug. 

* * *

Pearl was halfway through gathering laundry when she spotted Steven laying on the bed, staring at Connie's computer screen intensely as a light voice sang through the speakers.'

“Steven? Are you watching that show again?“

Not even glancing away from the screen he made a hurried quieting motion.

“Shh! Lady Platinum is about to make her first appearance!“

Amethyst, slumped on the kitchen counter as she prepared to eat a car tire that Garnet had warned her not to, rolled lazily to stare at the boy.

“I thought the whole ‘my life is a show’ thing freaked you out?“

Steven shrugged, eating a few Chaaaps as he started to download the next episode.

“It’s not really my life. Just a parody. And it’s pretty cool actually- they do this thing called ‘Merger’ where two Jewels can split in half and then mix together to become two types of the same thing! Like one will have the super fast and stealthy qualities of both the original Jewels and the other will have the strength and courage but then-“

The gems looked at each other in confusion before deciding to leave Steven to ramble about his odd show in peace.

* * *

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> I think I added some unneeded angst in there but it just worked for me somehow- I’m totally talking off the top of my head about the stress blogging stuff. I’ve been told a few of these things can help, but usually it’s separately on a case to case basis- I just combined it all in one because it seemed like something Lapis and Peridot would do, just using all the different techniques at once.
> 
> This was really interesting to do! I don’t tend to write fanfics for this show since I never feel like I can get the characters right but this was a nice exorcise that didn’t hinge too heavily on character portrayals.


End file.
